WikiLeaks Tweets November 1-8, 2016

In 2016, like a lot of people using social media, I found myself constantly alarmed at the various accusations being leveled at Hillary Clinton and Democrats generally. A lot of these accusations, I found, originated with the Russian hack of the DNC.* As is now widely known (though less so among Republicans in the US*), Russian hackers stole information from both the Democrats and Republicans but only chose to disseminate information potentially harmful to Democrats.*

The claim of dishonesty is important because it suggests that WikiLeaks is itself opaque and, therefore, hypocritical.

One might argue that WikiLeaks founder (and former host of Russia Today’s World Tomorrow) Julian Assange is in favor of transparency generally and that the source of information that increases transparency is unimportant.* I find that explanation plausible. However, what I think may have received too little attention during the 2016 election is how partisan WikiLeaks was and how dishonest their dissemination of information was. The claim of dishonesty is important because it suggests that WikiLeaks is itself opaque and, therefore, hypocritical.

What you find is that, of those 153 tweets, 130 (85%) of them were critical of Clinton and Democrats generally. Of those same 153 tweets, there is not a single one critical of Trump nor of any Republican.

To support my claim of partisanship, I provide below a collection of all 153 tweets by WikiLeaks from November 1st through election day, November 8th, 2016.* What you find is that, of those 153 tweets, 130 (85%) of them were critical of Clinton and Democrats generally. Of those same 153 tweets, there is not a single one critical of Trump nor of any Republican. I categorized 15 of the tweets as neutral. One of those was a retweet of CNN’s Jake Tapper where the reporter wrote, “been hearing for weeks anecdotally about the CIA-FBI divide over this election.” Tapper clarified in a brief, tweeted conversation that he meant, “as a very crude generalization,” he was hearing about the CIA being anti-Trump and FBI being anti-Clinton.* I don’t know what prompted WikiLeaks to share this, so I categorized it as “neutral.”

To support my claim of dishonesty, I will highlight the habit the WikiLeaks tweeters had of misrepresenting the content of articles and emails.

To support my claim of dishonesty, I will highlight the habit the WikiLeaks tweeters had of misrepresenting the content of articles and emails. For example, on November 4th, WikiLeaks tweeted, “MIT prof: What I learned from visualizing Clinton’s emails – Summary: study censored & I was mobbed by Clintonists.”* The problem with this “summary” by WikiLeaks is that the professor never claims to have been mobbed.* He does claim that a Reddit thread about the analysis was taken down by a moderator, but there is no evidence that a “Clintonist” did this. In fact, the analyst himself notes that he was a Clinton supporter who viewed Trump as “potentially a threat to global security.” How did he summarize his own work? Read for yourself:

What I saw on Clinton’s emails was not surprising to me. It involved a relatively small group of people talking about what language to use when communicating with other people. […]
I am sure that if we had access to Trump’s emails we would see plenty of the same behavior.

Another case involves a possibly strained relationship between Al Gore and Hillary Clinton. In the email exchange, Nora Toiv shares a November 2015 story published by People titled “Al Gore Declines to Endorse Hillary Clinton for President.” In fact, Gore says that he is not endorsing anyone at that point because it’s too early to decide.* Huma Abedin tells those present in the email thread that Gore warned the campaign that he would not endorse Hillary Clinton: “hard to put on email but there is no love lost in this relationship. reminder that he also refused to endorse in 2008!!!” This obviously indicates a strained relationship of some kind but gives no indication of ill will on either’s part. So, how did it turn out? Gore endorsed Clinton in July 2016, months before WikiLeaks tweeted the email.* Here’s how WikiLeaks presented the email exchange: “Hillary and Gore hate each other. The reason is too dangerous to put in email — Clinton’s closest aid Huma Abedin.”

Call me crazy, but that seems not at all transparent to me.

With this background, I present all 153 tweets with notes and context where I could find them:

11/8/2016
“Clinton: out of touch, cronyistic, didn’t drive a car in 35 years, flew all over the world but accomplished nothing”link
source WikiLeaks

11/8/2016
“By biasing its internal electoral market the DNC selected the less competitive candidate defeating the purpose of running a primary.”link
source WikiLeaks

11/8/2016
“The American people don’t like corruption. After the election comes selection. Who will be selected and why?”link
[Note: Article by David Dayen, who has also contributed to Salon, The Intercept, and Fiscal Times.] br>
source New Republic

11/8/2016
“Hillary Clinton is privately against gay marriage”link br>
[Note: Regated is not currently active. It appears to have been founded by Victor Smith and Sam Wenkert. One of the writers for the publication calls himself Robert Powell and wrote on his Gab page on 3/12/18, “These countries are shitholes BECAUSE THEY ARE NO LONGER MAJORITY WHITE.” Other writers: Orlando Navarro, MD Anderson, Julian Wan.] br>
source Regated

11/8/2016
“#Sweden allowing #US Homeland Security officers at #Stockholm airport, permanently & w/ access to own weapons”link br>
[Note: The writer of the article, Prof. Marcello Ferrada de Noli, does not have a strong web presence outside of two YouTube interviews published by Russia Today. The Indicter has a YouTube channel itself which has published several Russia Today videos.] br>
source The Indicter

9/13/2016
“Hillary Clinton’s best riposte to Trump? Radical transparency”link br>
[Note: Article from former New York Times editor Jill Abramson who has written favorably of Clinton’s honesty.] br>
source Guardian

11/8/2016
“NYTimes pushes out its 2 month old WikiLeaks conspiracy during the middle of voting” and links to NYTimes tweet, “How Russia often benefits when Julian Assange reveals the West’s secrets”link
source New York Times

11/8/2016
“WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange’s statement today on the US election”link br>
[Note: Assange rationalizes his decision to continue publishing hacked DNC emails. He does not say that the emails came from a Russian hack. He does not say why WikiLeaks is only apparently interested in improving the transparency of the DNC and not also the RNC.] br>
source WikiLeaks

11/8/2016
“Forbes: Why Historians Must Use Wikileaks To Write The History Of The 2016 Election”link
source Forbes

11/8/2016
“Bill Clinton in private speech: UK’s Jeremy Corbyn is a ‘guy off the street… the maddest person in the room'”link br>
[Note: This appears meant to show some duplicity in Bill Clinton, a highly-regarded figure among many Democrats.] br>
source WikiLeaks

11/7/2016
“Constructing the Obama cabinet: full Briefing Book via Citibank (see attachments)”link br>
[Note: Article by David Dayen, who has also contributed to Salon, The Intercept, and Fiscal Times.] br>
source New Republic

11/7/2016
“Podesta: Clinton top aid & Chief of Staff at State, Cheryl Mills, was against Clinton running for president”link br>
[Note: Another message in this thread reads, “Do we actually know who told Hillary she could use a private email? And has that person been drawn and quartered?”] br>
source WikiLeaks

11/7/2016
“HA Goodman: If you want to protect WikiLeaks sources, the Greens @DrJillStein has been their strongest defender”link br>
[Note: Goodman’s Twitter feed is full of links to his own YouTube videos, Fox News retweets, at least one favorable retweet from Donald Trump, and many tweets critical of the FBI and CIA.] br>
source Huffington Post

11/6/2016
“Hillary Clinton, Saudi Arabia and John Podesta”link br>
[Note: This links to the teleSur video “Empire Files: Abby Martin Exposes John Podesta.” Abby Martin previously hosted a show for Russia Today. teleSur has frequently been described as a propaganda tool for Hugo Chávez.] br>
source teleSURE

11/6/2016
“SCOOP: @ChelseaClinton’s husband used @ClintonFdn events & connections to raise money for his hedge fund.”link br>
[Note: The actual title of the piece is “Chelsea’s husband allegedly used foundation ties to boost hedge fund” which includes the word “allegedly.”] br>
source Politico

11/6/2016
“Chelsea Clinton’s husband used Clinton Foundation poker games to boost his hedge fund according internal allegation”link br>
[Note: The full title of Politico article is, “Chelsea’s husband allegedly used foundation ties to boost hedge fund” which includes the word “allegedly.”] br>
source Politico

11/6/2016
“Updated with many of revelations from batches of #PodestaEmails published by @wikileaks during past week”link br>
[Note: ShadowProof, previously FireDogLake is an alternative left-wing blog.] br>
source Shadow Proof

11/2/2016
“DoJ Assistant Attorney Peter Kadzik outed as a mole for Hillary Clinton campaign”link br>
[Note: The Charlotte Observer noted that Podesta and Kadzik are long-time friends. Kadzik did not tell Podesta anything not already a part of public record: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article112169977.html] br>
source WikiLeaks

11/6/2016
“It’s ignorant to vote for Hillary Clinton without reading WikiLeaks”link br>
[Note: This is an opinion paragraph of an apparent citizen of Auroro, CO in an opinion section of the Denver Post.] br>
source Roger Yates

11/5/2016
“Powell told Clinton in 2009 there was a “real danger” she’d be caught & that he used off books system, kept quiet.”link
source WikiLeaks

11/6/2016
“Chelsea Clinton used Clinton Foundation resources for her wedding — email from top Bill Clinton aid Doug Band”link br>
[Note: The Washington Post Fact Checker ruled that there was no evidence for this claim.*] br>
source WikiLeaks

11/5/2016
“Video: Inside the Clinton network of John Podesta — best summary by far”link br>
[Note: This links to the teleSur video “Empire Files: Abby Martin Exposes John Podesta.” Abby Martin previously hosted a show for Russia Today. teleSur has frequently been described as a propaganda tool for Hugo Chávez.] br>
source teleSUR

11/5/2016
“Video: 23 minute special on WikiLeaks’ #PodestaEmails from @teleSURtv”link br>
[Note: This links to the teleSur video “Empire Files: Abby Martin Exposes John Podesta.” Abby Martin previously hosted a show for Russia Today. teleSur has frequently been described as a propaganda tool for Hugo Chávez.] br>
source teleSUR

11/4/2016
“Sanders had non-aggression pact with Clinton who had ‘leverage’ to enforce it Robby Mook (‘re47’) email reveals”link
source WikiLeaks

11/5/2016
“Clinton’s charity confirms Qatar’s $1 million gift while she was at State Dept (Reuters with more details)”link
source WikiLeaks

11/5/2016
Internal legal review concluded that the Clinton Foundation was run ‘like a political operation’link
source WikiLeaks

11/5/2016
“Julian Assange: @HillaryClinton fue la figura clave en la destrucción de #Libialink br>
[Note: Interview with Julian Assange by Spanish language Russia Today news outlet. In English, the title is “Hillary Clinton was the key figure in the destruction of the State of Libya.”‘] br>
source teleSUR

11/5/2016
“A summary by category of WikiLeaks’ #PodestaEmails finds http://www.vaskal.ca/podestafiles”link br>
[Note: It is unclear who runs Vaskal. There is a page on the site titled “Merry Trumpmas” where one can download a Christmas card featuring Donald Trump on the front and Pepe the Frog on the inside.*] br>
source Vaskal

11/5/2016
” ‘Have her beat the sh*t out of a.. staffer’ as prep to make Clinton less “unpleasent” during interviews”link
source WikiLeaks

11/4/2016
“FBI- emails related to Hillary Clinton’s tenure as SOS on Weiner laptop. Emails are NOT duplicates https://goo.gl/Mjbc5c #maga #Trump”link br>
[Note: Ben Swann has publicly presented many conspiracy theories and has appeared regularly on Russia Today. This tweet has been deleted but can still be found here.] br>
source CBS (Ben Swan)

11/4/2016
“ISIS and the Clintons have the same bankers: Saudi Arabia & Qatar”link br>
[Note: The actual title of the article is, “Julian Assange: Isis and Clinton Foundation are both funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar”] br>
source Independent

11/4/2016
“Hillary Clinton warned by former Secretary of State Colin Powel in March, 2015 to not use him as emails excuse:”link
source WikiLeaks

11/4/2016
“MIT prof: What I learned from visualizing Clinton’s emails Summary: study censored & I was mobbed by Clintonists”link br>
[Note: The writer does not say that the study was censored. The writer does not say he was mobbed by Clintonists. The writer writes, “What I saw on Clinton’s emails was not surprising to me. It involved a relatively small group of people talking about what language to use when communicating with other people.”] br>
source Cesar A. Hidalgo (MIT Professor)

11/3/2016
“‘isn’t it going to leak out of the FBI anyway?’ Clinton rebuffed Podesta’s efforts to turn over emails to 3rd party”link br>
[Note: It is not clear that anyone is rebuffing anything in this email exchange.] br>
source WikiLeaks

11/3/2016
“Wikileaks: Not all of Clinton’s Emails were Turned Over”link br>
[Note: This links to a YouTube video published by conservative news outlet One America News, a network that also airs a show called On Point with Sarah Palin.] br>
source One America News Network

11/3/2016
“Hidden Clinton email: Assange ‘might think this is a clever game today but when he is prosecuted..’ ”link
source Vice

11/3/2016
“‘He is funding at $1m’ — Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) pay for play for Pritzker”link br>
[Note: I could find no fact check on this.] br>
source WikiLeaks

11/3/2016
“IRS is also investigating the Clinton Foundation”link br>
[Note: I could find no update regarding the outcome of this investigation.] br>
source Dallas Observer

11/3/2016
“Associated Press ‘journalist’ Eric Tucker is willing to be ‘steered away’ from a story about Clinton’s emails”link br>
[Note: This was interpreted in many right-wing outlets as Tucker allowing the Clinton campaign to shape a narrative. In fact, it appears that Tucker is saying that he will accept any comment, even if it is a deflection.] br>
source WikiLeaks

11/3/2016
“Sweden’s business with Clinton Foundation in a geopolitical context”link br>
[Note: The writer of the article, Prof. Marcello Ferrada de Noli, does not have a strong web presence outside of two YouTube interviews published by Russia Today. The Indicter has a YouTube channel itself which has published several Russia Today videos.] br>
source Indicter

11/3/2016
“Two terrabyte drive with Clinton White House emails missing, presumed stolen from National Archives”link br>
[Note: This conversation is from April 2009. The person sending the email writes, “All material is unclassified, except for three documents which Bill Leary has examined and does not believe present an significant risk.”] br>
source WikiLeaks

11/3/2016
Hillary Clinton speeches released by @wikileaks to be publishedlink br>
[Note: This book was supposed to be published in January 2017 by left-wing publisher OR. I can find no evidence that this ever happened.] br>
source Bookseller

11/3/2016
“Clintons Sell Political Favors to Clinton Foundation Donors”link br>
[Note: Like many emails that are supposed to definitively prove this or that claim, it is unclear what exactly is happening in this email exchange.] br>
source New York Observer

11/3/2016
“Cruz on WikiLeaks exchange: ‘That official who gave the heads-up to the Hillary campaign should be terminated & Loretta Lynch should resign'”link
source Patrick Svitek (Texas Tribune)

11/3/2016
“Inside the US-China Paris climate accord negotiations. Podesta uses personal account to email with State Dept”link br>
[Note: Podesta does use a Gmail account in this exchange. Gmail backs up user data, though. It is difficult to see how this could pose a transparence problem.] br>
source WikiLeaks

11/3/2016
“Assignment Agreement for Leonidio Holdings (see attachments) the vehicle used by John Podesta to hide Joule shares”link
source WikiLeaks

11/3/2016
Robby Mook discusses with John Podesta about how to “structure” a US$3k/month cash payment to him. #IRSlink br>
[Note: Robby Mook is a campaign strategist. This appears to be an arrangement to pay him for doing his job.] br>
source WikiLeaks

11/3/2016
“New York-based OR Books is publishing a collection of Hillary Clinton’s speeches, released by Wikileaks”link br>
[Note: This book was supposed to be published in January 2017 by left-wing publisher OR. I can find no evidence that this ever happened.] br>
source Bookseller

11/2/2016
“New emails suggest coordination between State Department and #Clinton camp http://dw.com/p/2S3ve?maca=en-tco-dw … #Wikileaks #clintonemails”link br>
[Note: The message, dated March 1, 2015, came from Department of State press aid Lauren Hickey. The email shows that there was brief communication between Hickey and the Clinton Campaign. This communication does not indicate “coordination.”] br>
source DW News

11/2/2016
“WikiLeaks #Podesta emails are feeding into a new high priority Clinton Foundation investigation”link br>
[Note: I could find no followup to this nor any evidence that this was ever true.] br>
source Fox News

11/2/2016
“Pro-Clinton media calls for UK to storm embassy and arrest Assange”link br>
[Note: The writer of this article says that an article where writer Paul Webster Hare questions whether Assange’s activities warrant him being stopped was published in Newsweek. I could not find this article there on Newsweek. The writer of the article, Prof. Marcello Ferrada de Noli, does not have a strong web presence outside of two YouTube interviews published by Russia Today. The Indicter has a YouTube channel itself which has published several Russia Today videos.] br>
source Indicter

11/2/2016
“MIT goes WikiLeaks with Clinton influence explorer:”link br>
[Note: The author of the analysis writes, “What I saw on Clinton’s emails was not surprising to me. It involved a relatively small group of people talking about what language to use when communicating with other people.”] br>
source WikiLeaks

11/2/2016
“AP: State Department fed info to Clinton campaign after she had left govt & modified draft press release for her”link br>
[Note: The article from AP says, “A State Department official appeared to coordinate with Hillary Clinton’s nascent presidential campaign hours before the former secretary of state’s exclusive use of private emails was first detailed in a news account.” The article says, “Hickey provided the agency’s response to the Clinton aides and also appeared to agree to a change requested by the campaign, saying: ‘Yes on your point re records – done below.'” It is unclear to me why this appears to be “agreement to a change.” It looks like the State Department was asking for a record that was then supplied by Clinton’s team.] br>
source AP

11/2/2016
“Politico follows up on our DoJ-Clinton collusion story #Kadzik #PodestaEmails”link br>
[Note: This is the same store as above.] br>
source Politico (Matthew Nussbaum)

11/2/2016
“WikiLeaks: DOJ official gave ‘heads up’ to Clinton camp: http://cnn.it/2e3jgwn @jimsciutto reports on #TheLead”link br>
[Note: Per CNN: “The legal filing referenced in the second part of Kadzik’s email had been submitted to the court a day before Kadzik sent it, and had already been reported on in the media.”*] br>
source CNN

11/2/2016
“Who will draw up Clinton’s cabinet? The DNC? Goldman Sachs? Citibank? #PodestaEmails shows how its done:”link
source New Republic

11/2/2016
“Here’s the updated list of all Podesta docs published by @WikiLeaks that have been proven, or claimed, to be fake https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/69/c7/8f/69c78f53fdc93726ce2d3b2c37478445.jpg”link br>
[Note: The link is an image of a blank sheet of paper.] br>
source Glenn Greenwald

11/2/2016
“DoJ gave Hillary Clinton secret “heads up” about emails investigation https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/43150#efmABWAB8ACiACqACvADUADXAIF”link br>
[Note: Per CNN: “The legal filing referenced in the second part of Kadzik’s email had been submitted to the court a day before Kadzik sent it, and had already been reported on in the media.”*] br>
source WikiLeaks

11/1/2016
“NEW book: Hillary Clinton: the Goldman Sachs speeches with an introduction by Assange & annotations: http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/hillary-clinton-goldman-sachs-speeches/”link br>
[Note: This book was supposed to be published in January 2017 by left-wing publisher OR. I can find no evidence that this ever happened.] br>
source OR Books

11/2/2016
“New WikiLeaks Release: DOJ Official’s ‘Heads Up’ to Podesta #podestaemails26 @edhenry http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/11/02/trump-new-wikileaks-showing-doj-officials-heads-clinton-camp”link br>
[Note: Per CNN: “The legal filing referenced in the second part of Kadzik’s email had been submitted to the court a day before Kadzik sent it, and had already been reported on in the media.”*] br>
source Fox Insider

11/2/2016
“WikiLeaks emails show close links between Google’s Eric Schmidt and the Democrats”link
source International Business Times

11/2/2016
“Clinton’s Mook used “other candidates” as cover for Clinton – Wasserman Shultz meeting https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/40823#efmAKRAMe … @SenSanders”link br>
[Note: This is the highlighted message: “I asked that he make sure she has meetings scheduled with other potential candidates, so they can credibly say they’re meeting with everyone.”] br>
source WikiLeaks

11/2/2016
“Clinton campaign censored its best joke in strategy to suggest that Clinton emails were of just of a personal nature” https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/42474#efmAnwArt”link br>
[Note: It is unclear to me how someone at WikiLeaks got this interpretation out of this email.] br>
source WikiLeaks

11/2/2016
“It’s ignorant to vote for Hillary Clinton without reading WikiLeaks”link br>
[Note: This is an opinion paragraph of an apparent citizen of Auroro, CO in an opinion section of the Denver Post.] br>
source Roger Yates (citizen)

11/2/2016
“John Podesta says top Justice Department official on Clinton probe ‘kept him out of jail’ in hacked WikiLeaks email http://washex.am/2fEEkd6”link br>
[Note: The comment reads like a joke in context.] br>
source Washington Examiner

11/2/2016
“Mail: Congress asks why FBI Deputy Director whose wife took $675,000 in Clinton related cash is on Clinton case”link br>
[Note: PolitiFact wrote that McCabe’s wife Jill ran for state legislature in Virginia. Like other Democrats running, Democratic donors donated to her campaign. None of these donations were linked to Clinton and they happened before an investigation into Clinton’s emails began.*] br>
source Daily Mail

11/2/2016
DoJ’s Peter Kadzik was also the attorney for Marc Rich–whose file the FBI released yesterday–as well as Podesta (“Kept me out of jail”).link
source WikiLeaks

11/2/2016
“WikiLeaks: #DOJ official gave John Podesta a heads-up on Hillary Clinton’s emails http://bit.ly/2feeNoe #WikiLeaks #JohnPodesta”link br>
[Note: Per CNN: “The legal filing referenced in the second part of Kadzik’s email had been submitted to the court a day before Kadzik sent it, and had already been reported on in the media.”*] br>
source Washington Examiner

11/1/2016
Podesta: “So much money on the table.” Clinton re-oriented to take in 5x the funds in wake of Citizens United: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/40081#efmAAGAB2AGkAGyAHzAH_AJwAKmATVA_Ylink
source WikiLeaks